China Struggling to Retain Rural Doctors Due to Poor Pay

China is struggling to retain village doctors due to poor pay and working conditions and most of them are leaving to cities in search of better jobs, a survey said.

Many rural doctors have expressed the desire to leave their jobs, according to a survey by Ma Wenfang, a deputy to the National People's Congress and a rural doctor himself.

The survey, reported Monday by the web portal Netease. com, was conducted across 100 Chinese villages in the provinces of Shandong, Henan and Hunan.

Ma found that all 100 doctors surveyed reported low salaries, with their highest monthly income standing at a little more than 1,000 yuan, (USD 170). The lowest was only 60 yuan.

"Their complaints have included 'low income', 'no social insurance' and 'few job prospects'," Ma said. With 6,49,000 health centres spread across 5,89,000 villages, China is in desperate need of village doctors.

But the country is struggling to keep rural doctors, as a great number are increasingly reluctant to stay at their jobs due to barriers such as low pay, identity crisis and poor career prospects, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.